ADHD in the UK

“In a major report from the British Psychological Society, British physicians and psychologists are warned not to follow the Canadian and U.S. practice of applying the label attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to such a wide variety of behaviors in children.

Above all, the report urges restraint in the prescribing of psychostimulants: "It must not be the first, and definitely not the only, line of treatment."”

“The widespread appellation of ADHD in North America to difficult children means that most classrooms, and many families, have children who are so classified. Although ADHD is officially a term for a category of mental disorder, the report said, "it has become so widely used ... that it has a prominent place in the contemporary culture."

Yet in Britain, there is a stark difference, according to the report: "The idea that children who don't attend or don't sit still in school have a mental disorder is not entertained by most British clinicians."”

“ADHD Just Doesn’t Add Up to Brit Psych Society”
by Harvey McConnell
The Medical Post, Jan. 21, 1997

Here in Australia, however, it seems that we are following the American example anyway. Which brings us, more or less, back to where we started.

”University of Queensland figures show that legal use of dexamphetamine in Australia has risen from 8.3 million tablets prescribed in 1984 to 38.4 million tablets in 2001. Over the same period Ritalin prescriptions rose from 1.5 million tablets to 19.3 million.”

Ritalin Debate: Some Experts Doubt Existence of ADHD
by Patrick Goodenough

And what of the future?

Next, ADHD - the future

ADHD-Report.com: The concerned parents' guide to childrens' attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD/ADD)

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